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Inhabitants of Shirley v. Inhabitants of Watertown

The Inhabitants of Shirley versus The Inhabitants of Watertown

Inhabitants of Shirley v. Inhabitants of Watertown, 3 Mass. 322 (1807)
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Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · State Highest Courts
Decided
October 15, 1807
Judges
Sedgwick, Sewall
Citations
3 Mass. 322
Headnotes
A warning of a pauper and his family, under the stat. 4 W. Sf M. c. 13, § 9, is sufficient to prevent the wife and children of the pauper from gaining a settlement.
Summary
Tr¡s was an action of assumpsit, for the support of the widow Sarah White, and Lucy, her daughter, from Nov. 9, 1801, to June 8, 1802. The action was tried before the late Chief Justice Dana, at the October term, 1805, and a verdict found for the plaintiffs. The defendants moved for a new trial, on the insufficiency of a certain warning or caution made by the selectmen of Newton, in the year 1765, pursuant to the statutes then in force. If that warning was legal and sufficient, the verdict was to stand; but if the Court should be of opinion that it was insufficient, the verdict was to be set aside, and a new trial granted; as in that case [ * 323 ] the last legal * settlement of the paupers was in Neivton, or at least not in Watertown. It appears that William, the husband of Sarah White, was living in 1765, and the warning by the constable of Newton, as directed by the selectmen, was of William White and family, without naming the individuals composing the family. Lucy, the daughter, was either not then born, or, if born, was in infancy.

Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.

Opinion of the Court — Sewall

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* Sewall, J.

If this had been an order of the Ses- [ *324 ] sions, it would undoubtedly have been bad for its uncer;ainty and generality; but I think that the warning of William White prevented his acquiring a settlement in Newton; and the wife and child could have no settlement separate from him. On the •vhole, I am for entering judgment upon the verdict.

Sedgwick, J.

This action is brought to recover the amount of expenses incurred by the plaintiffs in the support and maintenance of two paupers. The jury have given a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, and we are now moved to set aside this verdict, and grant a new trial, on the ground of the insufficiency of a certain process purporting a warning of the husband and father of these paupers from the town of Newton. If that warning was legal and sufficient, the verdict is to stand. It is presumable that Lucy was one of the family of William White at the time he was warned, and if so, the case shows nothing from which her separate settlement can be presumed. Unquestionably this warning was sufficient as it related to ■ William White, to prevent his gaining a settlement; and as his wife and daughter must derive their settlement from him, it would have been nugatory and absurd to warn them. They could not remove without him, nor tarry behind, if he removed. The warning appears to me sufficient to prevent William White, and as a necessary consequence, to prevent his wife and child from gaining a settlement; and as this is the only ground of objection to the verdict, I am in favor of entering judgment upon it (3) .

Parsons, C. J., concurred.

Parker, J., was not in Court when this opinion was given.

Judgment according to verdict.

[Somerset vs. Dighton, 12 Mass. 383 .—Ed.]

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

1813–1814: 11815–1816: 11819–1820: 21823–1824: 11839–1840: 11865–1866: 118132026peak 1819 · 2

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Authorities cited 1

DepthCaseCited by
Inhabitants of Somerset v. Inhabitants of Dighton, 12 Mass. 383 (1815) 43

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